... a visit to Guam is a visit to the United States. Practically speaking, though, it isn't. When someone says "United States," the first place thought of is not Guam, of course. So, technically, yes, you did "visit" Haiti, Patrick, even if you never did set foot outside the airport.

(A similar exercise would be to determine if John McCain, born in the US-controlled Canal Zone, is really a naturalized US citizen. The Canal Zone was neither a territory or commonwealth of the US. However, like US embassies overseas, US military bases are considered US soil, e.g. Guantanamo Bay.)

My candidate for ridiculous press aircraft conventon is "fighter jets" as a description for combat planes in respectable papers like The New York Times ... In short, all fighter planes these days are jets. Too bad the news hasn't reached the newspaper industry.

But the word "fighter" modifies "jet," so the use of "fighter jet" is not grammatically or technically incorrect because there are other kinds of jets flying around (military bases or otherwise).

Lucky you. In that sense, technology is a wonderful thing.

Back in the day, when my parents lived halfway around the world and I was studying in Vermont, it cost $5 per MINUTE to call overseas! LOL

I just see the modern, nuclear American family not being as touchy-feely as it once was. How many families actually sit down to dinner together ... even once a week? Spending time together watching a TV show (yes, there were shows way back when that whole families could enjoy watching) has been replaced by Guitar Hero III, Second Life and Internet chat rooms.

There is also a Russian movie titled "Air Crew" that involves an Aeroflot airliner on approach right when an earthquake destroys the runways. The special effects aren't the greatest; it's more of a "character development" movie. But it might be worth checking out.

... from any previous generation's aspirations? I don't believe either parents wished for the kinds of careers they had as adults. I know my father wanted to go to medical school but wound up teaching high school geometry and biology before working his way up the corporate ladder in HVAC marketing and sales. (Such is where an education masters degree will get you in the 1950's, I guess.)

My mother had to cut short her own career aspirations to raise a family before (finally) getting her teaching degree 20 years later.

Such is life.

Wasn't Patroni the recurring flight engineer character in the Airport movies, played by George Kennedy? I'm guessing that "doing a Patroni" would refer to something similar to what "Patroni" did in the first Airport film, i.e. rev'ed up a 707's engines full-blast to get it unstuck from mud at the end of a runway (filmed at Minneapolis-St. Paul, btw, in 1968). Probably just refers nowadays to some kind of hot-doggin' on the runway or tarmac ... although I find that hard to believe.

Tomas, of course.

:)

Re: Judas Iscariot

I was brought up in the Episcopalean church believing that Christ's cruxification was preordained. If so, then Judas' act was also preordained. I'm not sure I understand how this belief makes for controversy within the church.

:: He thinks it's somehow noteworthy that he comes across 2 black pilots... in Africa. This is because of how few there are in America, he claims. Would he have had the same reaction in, say, Indonesia or China

It's quite possible that he could do so. For many years such airlines as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines ... and, yes, even Garuda, used more non-Asian pilots in the cockpit than Asian pilots. (Even knew an American who "retired" from a US airline to fly for SIA in the early 90's.) IIRC, during the time I lived in Asia (until 1992), Japan Air Lines was the only Asian international carrier with flight officers on the deck, more often than not, who were both Asian.

:: Is best known as Blackadder, damn it.

Hmm. Not necessarily. My first encounter with Atkinson on television was the Mr. Bean series. I'm not a follower of Blackadder and have never seen an episode. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

You're wrong. There were at least two. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Technically, no, George and Tom were Christians ... specifically they were Deist. Deists believe in free will, not dogma. Deists may doubt the more literal interpretations of the Bible (i.e. they are to the "left" of Fundamentalists) and some may express doubt, too, about the divinity of Christ but they are still, nonetheless, considered to be Christians.